The Republican journal., 1887-10-06
Letter from Old Mexico.
THE CASCARONE CUSTOM. BALLROOM FROL-
ICS. IMPORTANT ''FIND" OF PARTY OF
MINERS. A FAMILY OF EMBAIMED AZTECS.
MAKING,


| les. IMPORTANT "FIND' OF PARTY OF
MINERS. a FAMILY OF EMBAIMED AZTECs.
| RECEIPTS, OLD AND NEW, FOR MUMMY
| MAKING.
Correspondence of the Journal.
CITY OF MEXICO, Sept. 1887. The stranger
i'll Mexico, especially il he be young and good
looking, is liable to be considerably surprised
at his first ball here. when some pretty Scnorta,
whom he has never seen before, trips up to
him with an engaging smile on her face and
something that looks like an egg in her hand,
and suddenly smashcs the latter over his cram
ium. 10 one not acquainted with the cascarone
custom, it is startling, to say the least. Luckily,
however, the egg has been robbed of its usual
interior, the original contents having been
emptied through Il small hole at one end. The
shell is then rctilled with tnely-chopped tinscl
and colorcd paper, perhaps with the addition
of perfumed satchet-powder, or some dainty
trinkct; after which the opening is neatly
closed by bit of paper pasted over it.
In the good old days of the Spanish aristoc-
racy, the egg-shels to be used by proud gram
dees at swell fandangoes, were filled with gold
and diamond dust. Similar cxtravagances are
sometimes indulged in nowadays, but rarely.
opas, or spiccd candies are stuffed in with the
chopped tinsel, making the advertisement ratl-
| er expensive. One can buy very pretty cascar-
ones. however, for about a dollar per dozen,
| and it is quite the correct thing for a belle or
| beau to go to ball armed with several dozens
| of them.
Often the shells are hand-painted, or other
| wise beautifully decorated, much like Easter
eggs in the North. Society matrons, who pro-
pose giving balls during the cascarone season,
| q ha IIS nf oil Il in fl,oh
hold carefully saved for the purpose; and many
an hour is spent by herself and friends in fill
| ing and decorating them.
THE ACT OF BREAKING A CAsCARONE
| on another's head is considered compliment
to the recipient, who feels in duty bound to re-
| turn the honor at the first opportunity. Pre-
| viouS acquaintance is not essential. it being of
| itself sort of informal introduction. Thus
any Mexican lady may literally ''make mash"
| on any stranger gentleman who pleases her,
and without offending her countrymen's ex-
tremcly sensitive notions of propriety.
1t is intended to merely crush the shells in
| the hand and scatter their contents over the
person, but more frequently in the haste and
excitement of these mock battles-which gen
orally occur between dances the shell is
whacked against the head, with more or less
UNCONSCIOUS force Oh the part of the beStoWer.
| When some adventurous maiden cracks the
| first cascarOne over the pare of the man of her
| choice, the contagion quickly spreads. and soon
| everybody is pursued and ursuins, like North
ern school-boys in a snOw-halling bout.
few weeks ago, a party of miners who
were out prospecting among the Sierra Madres,
| near the Gile river in Arizona, made grand
discovery-not of gold, bul something more
remarkable. In a lonesome gorge of the noun
tans, where nothing indicated that man had
ever been, their attention was attracted by
peculiar arrangement of the rocks. 1t looked
like nature; but having thrust their picks into
crevice and disturbed the pile, it proved to be
a sEPULCIlRE,
which had evidently been constructed with
care at some remote period. Inside the cairn
We're number of mummies, in a wonderful
state of preservation, and of a make superior
to those of Egypt. There We're mummes of
all sizes and both sexes. and perfect had
been the process of their embaming that the
hair is intact and the muscles still stand out
prominently. Each figure was wrapped round
and round in cloth that yet retains its brilliant
colorng. though ancient that the outer lay
ers crumbed when touched.
The features are unmSt akably of the Aztec
type; and the dried up faces show such a de-
cited 'family likeness" that all behoderS de-
clair the tomb must have been that Of some
Indian Monarch or Chicftain and his immediate
relatives. There was The King himself
giant ttigure-wrapped in gorgeous cloth. which
shows traces of having been inwrought with
feathers and embroidery. his neck hung with
rows upon rows of shells and perforated stones,
strung upon eathern thongs. Close beside
hlln was Il little woman. in wrappings of finer
| texture and softer coloring. with ornaments of
gold and silver upon her breast and a nummi-
hed infant in her arms. The eight or ten other
figures may have been the children Of this pair,
or their relatives or servants.
But however great our curiosity. there is not
even hierogyphic to tell the story, and the
tleshc>s lips keep well their secret, Inside
the sepuchre were also found many ornaments,
| mostly of stone and shell, and something in
beaten silver having the appearance of rude
masks, one for each mummy. In the immedi-
ate vicinity the osseous remains of Il great
number of horses were scattered about, which,
| no doubt, had been sacrificed during the funeral
ceremonies. 1t is not unlikely that the Chief
died first, and his wife and the others were
sent, per force, to accompany him to the happy
huning-grounds of their gods.
The relies were carefully packed and shipped
to local scientist in San Francisco, who, it is
to be hoped, will place them in some museum.
Those who insist that the ancient Aztec ciyiliZa-
ton which the Spaniards destroyed Sprany
from the prehistoric Asatic, can now strength
ell their theories of
COMMON ORIGIN
with the Egyptian or ChaIdnna civilization,
by this new-found ''connecting link" Their
literature, astronomy and religion indicate the
same fountain-head, as their mummies show a
common knowledge of the long lost art of
etfectual embalming.
According to Cassien the Egyptians cmbam-
undation no interments could take place; but
other writers affirm it was because they be-
lievcd that so long as the body was prevented
from corruption the soul remained in it. We're
the latter true, to what a horrible fate did
those mistaken ancients consign their dead.
imprisoning the unhappy souls for thousands
of years in these ghastIy coverings.
NJ. Ganna believes embamment to have
been suggested merely by the atfectionate SEN
tmcnts of our nature,-a desire to preserve
Of
possible. Pariset and NJ. NJ. Volney thought
it was intended, especially in hot climates. to
obviate danger from pestilence, as primarily it
seems to have been cheap and simple process
luxury and elegance coming later.
HerOdOtus states that it was to prevent bod
les from becoming prey to animal voracty.
Says he: "They did not inter them, for fear
OF their being eaten by worms; nor did they
burn them, considering fire fcrocous
monster devourng everything it touched.'
Diodorus of Sicily insists that embaming Or
iginated in tia piety and respect. De Maillet,
however, attributes it entirely to religious ne
lief, enjoned by the wise men and priests, who
taught their disciples that after certain num-
Der of cycles, of perhaps
THIRTY OR FORTY THOUSAND YEARS,
the entire universe became as it was at birth,
and the souls OF the dead returned into the
same bodies in which they had lived, if the
body remained free from corruption, and if
sacrifices were freely offered as obations to
| the names OF the deceased. Considering the
great care taken to preserve the dead. and the
| ponderously solid nature of the Egyptian
| tomi's, and of many which may be even older
| found in this miscalled New World,-it is not
surprising that the latter theory has obtained
| many believers. 1t is interesting to search out
| the causes which have led many nations in
! various parts of the earth to adopt certain
processes with view to prevent that ''tltlst to
| dust' ultimatum which all flesh must sooner
or later experience; and it is not unlikely that
| the aboriginal tribes of this western hemiS-
phere were animated by the same ideas which
| prevailed on the other side of the globe.
| Even among the Northern Indians num-
mifying was frequently resorted to for people
| of distinction. Beverly, who wrote in 1722,
says in his History of Virgnia-with great
squandering of capitals: '''rhe Indians are
religious in preserving the Corpses of their
Kings and Rulers after Death, which they Or
der in the following manner: First, they
neatly flay off the skin, entirely as they can,
Sitting it only in the back then they pick all
| tie flesh off from the bones, as clean as pos
sible, leaving the sinews fastened to the bones,
| that they may preserve the joints together:
then they dry the bones in the sun. and put
| them into the skin again, which in the mean
| time has been kept from drying shrinking;
when the bones are placed right in the skin,
they merely dill up the vacuities with very fine
white sand. After this they sew up the skin
again, and the body looks as if the flesh had
never been removed. They take care to keep
the skin from shrinking by the help of little